Notes on the data: Premature mortality by sex - 0 to 74 years

Deaths of males aged 0 to 74 years, 2016 to 2020

Policy context: Deaths before 75 years of age are classified as ‘premature’. The upper age limit reflects current life expectancy of around 78 years in OECD countries [1]. Australian males who were born during the period 2017-2019 had a life expectancy of 81.2 years, while at 75 years of age they could expect to live an average of an additional 12.7 years [2].

Some 40.5% of all male deaths over the years 2016 to 2020 occurred before 75 years of age, although the proportion varies by sex and by cause, with the highest proportions recorded for suicide (92.5%) and road traffic injuries (88.7%), and the lowest for cerebrovascular disease (25.0%) and respiratory system diseases (27.2%) [3]. Further details are here.

Males most likely to die prematurely included Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander males; those who were homeless, or who lived in sheltered accommodation or low-cost boarding houses; those with low incomes; and those who were unemployed [4].

References

OECD Data, Life Expectancy at birth. Available from: https://data.oecd.org/healthstat/life-expectancy-at-birth.htm.
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Life Tables, 2018-2020. Available from:https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/population/life-tables/latest-release: last accessed 23 March 2022.
PHIDU (www.phidu.torrens.edu.au), based on Cause of Death Unit Record Files supplied by the Australian Coordinating Registry and the Victorian Department of Justice, on behalf of the Registries of Births, Deaths and Marriages and the National Coronial Information System; 2016 to 2020.
Glover J, Harris K, Tennant S. A social health atlas of Australia [second edition] - volume 1: Australia. Adelaide: PHIDU, The University of Adelaide; 1999.

Notes: For deaths data released since 2007, the ABS has applied a staged approach to the coding of cause of death which affects the number of records available for release at any date. In general, the latest year’s data is preliminary, the second latest is revised and the data for the remaining years is final. For further information about the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) revisions process see the following and related sites: http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/3303.0Explanatory+Notes12012.

However, data published here are from the following releases: 2016 and 2017, final; 2018, revised; and 2019 and 2020, preliminary.

Geography: Data available by Population Health Area, Local Government Area, Primary Health Network, Quintile of socioeconomic disadvantage of area and Quintiles within PHNs, and Remoteness Area

Numerator: Deaths of males aged 0 to 74 years

Denominator: Male population aged 0 to 74 years

Detail of analysis: Average annual indirectly age-standardised rate per 100,000 males (aged 0 to 74 years); and/or indirectly age-standardised ratio, based on the Australian standard.

Source: Data compiled by PHIDU from deaths data based on the 2016 to 2020 Cause of Death Unit Record Files supplied by the Australian Coordinating Registry and the Victorian Department of Justice, on behalf of the Registries of Births, Deaths and Marriages and the National Coronial Information system. The population is the ABS Estimated Resident Population (ERP) for Australia, 30 June 2016 to 30 June 2020.